The Social Structure of Right and Wrong

About this book

This revised paperback edition features a new prologue and updated citations. The book extends the theoretical approach of Blacks classic "Behavior of Law" (Academic Press 1976) to a dramatically larger universe: the handling of conflict across societies and history. It also introduces and illustrates Blacks "pure sociology" a new theoretical paradigm applicable to human behavior of every kind. It provides current sociological theory on largely unexplored topics such as vengeance discipline avoidance pacification negotiation and toleration. It contains new concepts and typologies applicable to partisan and nonpartisan forms of conflict management. It illustrates modern theoretical perspectives on: crime as self-help; the broadening liability of organizations; social control of the self; the behavior of third parties; partisanship as social gravitation; and moralism as social repulsion.